The run

Day 15 into my new job comes an email from my boss looking for volunteers for a 7km women run inside Paris. I hate running, I really do, like really. It started when I was 6 and I have been pretty consistent throughout the last 30ish years. No is not an answer. So I reply yes. Oops.

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Let's dig a bit

You might wonder what it is like to hate running. It means that for each step you do, this inside voice tells you how boring, exhausting and useless it is and so to stop. It becomes that exhausting that after 3 min you reach a near death experience (yes yes I promise) and you end up stopping - safety first. Based on the assumption that my mind was the ennemy but not my body, I had to find a way to stop thinking while running, to find something else to motivate me and to find some methods. Action plan.

Part 1 - stop thinking while running : here comes the time to load some nice, enjoyable, motivating music but this was not enough at all. Here comes the running app. This is magical. It tracks your time, supports you while running, gives you step challenges with more than 1m people and gives some little rewards. This is stupid, I know, but it keps me happy and busy while running. Not sure that running and checking your phone is a great combination but you have to do what you have to do.

Part 2 - side motivation. What side benefit can I find into running ? First, while running, you waste calories. I have calories to loose, I like to eat : check. Second, while training, you can find training budies, even more when it is a corporate event. I like meeting people : check. Third, exercising is heatlhy and I have never really exercised in my life and I am reaching 35yo. I see these people doing marathon and all and I have not even run a marathon combining the distances I would have run the last 10 years. This is not good. I need to exercise at some point, I like to be in good health : check.

Part 3 - methods. When you have never run in your life, running 5 min sounds like the everest. Yes it does. The best way to start ? First tip, figure out a way to run 30 min constantly but DON'T try to run for a long time. The best way I found was to alternate run and walk keeping a 30 min slot. At first, you walk mainly and sometimes run and little by the little, you replace the walk by the run and become able to run constantly without noticing. It is way less depressing than trying to run as long as you can.

So based on that

Done, this is done. I have run these 7km, well 90% of it. And while I am not sure that I am addicted to running, I definitly plan to keep going !